All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators: some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation; and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again, for that library where every... Read more

    Today’s reading, Alma 15, is very straightforward.   But we shouldn’t overlook its illustration of the fact that repentance can occur in seemingly unlikely people.  And we should never minimize that fact.   Even avowed enemies of the Church can can change.     Read more

    http://www.seeker.com/uks-oldest-hand-written-document-found-1834432139.html     Read more

    My indispensable friend Ralph Hancock calls our attention to words from October 1972 general conference that seem eerily relevant to our situation today:   A Warning against Wolves and Delusions among the Saints – October 1972 General Conference, Session 5 (Priesthood Session)   Some complain that the basic messages at general conference are so often repeated.  Could that possibly be because we’re continually tempted by the same falsehoods and the same wrong turns, generation after generation after generation?... Read more

    I realize that I’m really old and terminally uncool, as well as white and male and a member of the privileged oppressor class, but, well . . .   Okay, I’m just going to blurt it out:   It makes little sense to me that leftist students at a university (!) would need a “safe space” in which to “recover” and “heal” because some ideas that differed from theirs were once spoken within a mile or two of... Read more

    Here are some words of appreciation (from several authors) for the man whom I consider the greatest living scholar of the Middle East in the English-speaking world:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435984/bernard-lewis-100-birthday-appreciation-friends-admirers   I used some of his work on the Isma‘ili Shi‘is and the “Assassins” in my doctoral dissertation and, years later, employed another of his books as the principal text for a course on the history of the pre-modern Middle East.  Now, I’m using some of his later books in a... Read more

    One report is now saying that Mitt Romney definitely won’t be entering the race for the White House:   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/436045/donald-trump-mitt-romney-forgoes-further-criticism   Which, if true (it probably is, but it has been questioned), leaves me thinking, given Hillary Clinton as the virtually inevitable Democratic nominee and Mr. Donald Trump as the almost certain Republican nominee, that it may be time to consider Cthulhu as the lesser of three evils.   The following articles sum up, pretty well, where I am on the... Read more

    “The only way to have a friend is to be one.”  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)     Read more

    http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-87368889/   I don’t know that it’s enough to persuade him.  But it has to be gratifying, after his 2012 loss, to have various people imploring him to run.   I’ve made no secret of my preference:  I wish he would.   An honest, competent, decent, modest, honorable candidate.  And a grown-up.  How refreshing that would be.     Read more

    The archaeological record is clear:  The New World was far from uninhabited when Lehi and his party arrived (and even, for that matter, when the Jaredites arrived).  And yet the Book of Mormon doesn’t seem to mention the presence of anybody else.   This seems to be a problem.   But is it, really?   Several Latter-day Saint scholars have written on this matter.  And, now, Kevin Barney offers an interesting new suggestion regarding it:   Others in the Land?  ... Read more